English League & European Football [27th Mar - 1st Apr 2010] **spoilers**
- Thread starter red11
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Yep thats what it certainly seems like is the case, which is a very good thing imho. At 2-0 down i thought thats is...bring on next yr but bringing Walcott on was a stroke of genius.
Just a shame that Gallas is again injured...Arshavin went off injured and Fab is probably injured as well
. Hopefully all 3 are not serious but its not good for the return leg but who knows we might just pull off a miracle and get a result at Barca.
Absolutely, Puyol made no attempt to play the ball and just blundered into the back of him, no doubt it was a penalty. The red card was a tad harsh but those are FIFA's rules, he denied a goalscoring chance and had to go.
It's not a rule that i'm a fan of, but if they take away the red card aspect then it'll mean defenders deliberately fouling and taking the 50-50 penalty instead of the guaranteed goal, and i have no doubt that it'll happen often.
Man of Honour
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Aye, we almost beat them there years ago when Kanu equalised, we've got every chance if we get our players back and concentrate. Still feel both of their goals could have been avoided and Almunia for example was poor (especially for the first, Ibra was already at an angle when he shot; if the keeper had stayed back..). They don't have their first choice CBs as well so who knows.
Puyol's red card was harsh, I'm not implying in anyway that two wrongs make a right, but it was similarly harsh on Vermaelen a week or two back.
Puyol's red card was harsh, I'm not implying in anyway that two wrongs make a right, but it was similarly harsh on Vermaelen a week or two back.
Soldato
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Haha I was thinking that myself.
Soldato
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Caporegime
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Actually he didn't even bundle into him, it was Fabregas's swinging leg got caught up in Puyol's legs, it was accidental, I really don't think it should have counted as a red card because there was zero intent, but it might save our bacon in the second leg. There are soo many times Arsenal have been screwed by awful decisions so, screw it, we get one go our way.
I wouldn't give Walcott too much credit, when you see the replays you see it rather scuffed his shot(as per usual), no real power and quite probably Valdes should have done much better and apart from his scuffed shot, ran the ball a lot mostly to pass 10 yards back.
However, against a team like Barca its better to run up the wing and push them back, than sit in your own half being way too defensive. IF Theo's final ball wasn't great after his goal, I don't know what Sagna's was, his passing and crossing was truly awful. Since the end of the first season when he got injured, damn, its been downhill since the day he came back, he wasn't great then, he's ruddy awful right now. He'd become a fairly poor right back by the end of last season, making massive mistakes for at least 2 of those 4 goals against Liverpool, and against Chelsea this year he was pathetic, offensive he offers so little(except that one game recently).
I really don't know what happened, freak first year form, career changing injury, or just can't get back to form for whatever reason. Hopefully he can get back to his first years form but we're now at the point where 3 years on he's had two bad seasons and one great season and its getting close to calling time on him and getting a replacement in. Frankly I'm way more than happy to get a right winger/right back type player who can be back up to Eboue and Nasri/Arshavin/Rosicky. Cash in on Sagna while some people still think he's worth a bit of cash I think.
Excellent game, Barca got tired at about 65 minutes or so because they started so incredibly quickly.
Going to be an excellent return game, the problem tonight was that half the team were playing well and the other half were crocked/not playing well. Denilson, Almunia, Bendtner, Walcott, and especially Clichy were great
Going to be an excellent return game, the problem tonight was that half the team were playing well and the other half were crocked/not playing well. Denilson, Almunia, Bendtner, Walcott, and especially Clichy were great
Agreed, Barca ran out of steam in the second half. Anyone know if ITV is planning on showing the 2nd leg? Or will they show Man U instead?
Soldato
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lol, what!?
Soldato
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Links please!? Not seeing this anywhere else?Ooerr news not great, Fabregas suspected broken leg and Gallas out for the rest of the season with a calf injurySucks to be Arsenal
Soldato
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Just reported on five live that the press association are saying Fabrigas said he's broken his leg and will be out for the season but they're trying to find out themselves.
jeez arsenal really do hate me, 1st they concede a 90th min goal against brum to let my accumulator down, then they come back from 2-0 down to ruin my dam single on barca, im just waiting for the spanking come saturday against my beloved wolves.... they do say things happen in 3's
Caporegime
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And Cesc injury has what to do with that?
In all honesty probably nothing, but then if I was Wenger, Puyol is off, its 10vs 10, he let a obviously very injured Fabregas limp around for 10 minutes when almost any other manager would have made the hard choice and brought him off even if we lost a man for 10 minutes.
If its a broken leg you can be almost certain running around for an extra 10 minutes didn't help.
If Fabregas had been limping around like that at 55minutes and I'd made all 3 changes, I would have pulled him off then and there and been down a man for 40 minutes. Think what happened to RVP which seems to be, being soft, not getting him to the worlds best doctors instantly and taking someone elses word for it probably worsened his injury to the tune of a couple extra months out.
Which goes for Gallas aswell, he looked not comftable from the get go frankly, risking two of our best players for a game in which we have about a 3% chance of winning across both legs, is god damned irresponsible, especially considering how many points Utd/Chelsea have dropped this year leaving us in with a real shout for the title.
If Barca replicate their first 30 mins against us, in the 2nd leg, we'll be 6-2 down on aggregate before half time, at which point Fabregas/Gallas's seasons being over won't seem worth it, even if they almost do tonight.